smbfs in 2.6.8 SMP kernel

smbfs in 2.6.8 SMP kernel

[Brian Henning]

Hello,

   I've just rebuilt my 2.6.8 kernel to enable SMP for my dual Xeons. 
Everything seems to work great, except now smbfs is broken.  If I boot 
the non-SMP kernel, smbfs works perfectly; however, if I boot the SMP 
kernel, most file creations/modifications in smbfs-mounted directories 
hang for a long time and end with errors such as the following example:

/home/me/smb/mounted/dir: $ touch testfile
touch: setting times of `testfile': Input/output error
/home/me/smb/mounted/dir: $ rm testfile
/home/me/smb/mounted/dir: $ echo "Hello, Dave." | cat > testfile
/home/me/smb/mounted/dir: $ cat testfile
Hello, Dave.
/home/me/smb/mounted/dir: $ echo "I'm scared, Dave." | cat > testfile
bash: testfile: Input/output error
/home/me/smb/mounted/dir: $ cat testfile
/home/me/smb/mounted/dir: $ ls -l testfile
-rwxr--r--  1 me root 0 2005-01-17 09:50 testfile

Now that I am aware of the problem, I know to avoid triggering it, but 
imagine my dismay when, after attempting to save an edited file, I found 
that its size had been reduced to zero!

   I'm a kernel-building newbie, so I'm sure my problem is due to me 
overlooking something.  I tried building smbfs into the kernel, but that 
made no difference.  I'd be ever thankful if someone would point me in 
the right direction, as I would certainly enjoy fully using my 
processors while also being able to use smbfs.

Other potentially pertinent data:
Distro: Debian Sarge
Kernel Version: 2.6.8 custom
Arch: Xeon-HT/EMT (x2)

Thanks in advance!
Regards,
~Brian

Re: smbfs in 2.6.8 SMP kernel

[Brian Henning]

Jesper Juhl wrote:
> If I remember correctly there was some smbfs breakage a few releases back 
> - 2.6.8 sounds about right. I'd suggest you try a newer kernel like 2.6.10 
> or 2.6.11-rc1 and see if that works better.

No luck with smbfs in 2.6.10 with SMP either; however, I discovered the 
existence of CIFS (which I previously did not know about), and it 
appears to work smoothly in place of smbfs.

Thanks for the input, however; I'm sure it's better for me to be running 
a .10 instead of .8 anyhow.

Cheers,
~Brian

Re: smbfs in 2.6.8 SMP kernel

[Jesper Juhl]

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005, Brian Henning wrote:

> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> > If I remember correctly there was some smbfs breakage a few releases back -
> > 2.6.8 sounds about right. I'd suggest you try a newer kernel like 2.6.10 or
> > 2.6.11-rc1 and see if that works better.
> 
> No luck with smbfs in 2.6.10 with SMP either; however, I discovered the
> existence of CIFS (which I previously did not know about), and it appears to
> work smoothly in place of smbfs.
> 
Perhaps if you could provide some more details on the breakage, that would 
make it easier for people to help you and track down the bug. Take a look 
at the REPORTING-BUGS document in the kernel source dir for a sample 
bugreporting form that will help you get all relevant details posted (in 
addition to what you already posted).


-- 
Jesper Juhl

Re: smbfs in 2.6.8 SMP kernel

[Alan Cox]

On Llu, 2005-01-17 at 18:13, Brian Henning wrote:
> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> > If I remember correctly there was some smbfs breakage a few releases back 
> > - 2.6.8 sounds about right. I'd suggest you try a newer kernel like 2.6.10 
> > or 2.6.11-rc1 and see if that works better.
> 
> No luck with smbfs in 2.6.10 with SMP either; however, I discovered the 
> existence of CIFS (which I previously did not know about), and it 
> appears to work smoothly in place of smbfs.

2.6.10-ac fixes several problems with the later smbfs code but cifs is
probably the better choice